This is a very delicate but gorgeously rich 1960s-style baked cheesecake, with a chocolate cookie crumb crust that has a soft pastry texture once baked and chilled. Folding beaten egg white through the mix gives it a light, aerated texture, subtly different to the all-in method of most modern baked cheesecakes. If you like, you can replace the cooked mixture of mascarpone and sugar with a 395-gram tin of sweetened condensed milk, and just pour that into the cream cheese with the yolks.
Classic cream cheesecake
175g mascarpone
225g castor sugar
750g full fat cream cheese
4 eggs, 60g each, separated
250g sour cream
3 tsp lemon juice or vanilla extract
big pinch of salt
1. Place a deep 23 centimetres in diameter springform cake tin, lined with a cookie crust, on a lipped baking tray.
2. Put the mascarpone and castor sugar in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and stir until it forms a syrup. Remove from the heat when it boils, then leave to cool.
3. Beat the cream cheese until soft and smooth, then beat in the mascarpone syrup and egg yolks. Next, beat in the sour cream and lemon juice.
4. In a very clean bowl, whisk the eggs whites with the salt to stiff peaks. Fold this through the cheese mixture evenly. Pour the mixture in the springform tin right to the top, and bake at 140C/120C fan-forced for about 75 to 90 minutes, or until the temperature deep in the middle reaches 65C, or just before the middle of the cake fully rises while it's still wobbly. Leave to cool, then chill before serving.
Serves 8-10
Cookie crumb crust
300-400g cookies, either homemade (see chocolate ginger snap recipe) or packet (Arnott's Choc Ripple or similar are a good texture)
75g melted butter (add a bit more if using packet biscuits)
Grind the cookies to a powder, then mix in enough melted butter until the cookie crumbs hold their shape when pressed together. Packet biscuits usually contain very little fat, so they need more melted butter to hold their shape. I found I needed 400 grams of homemade biscuits and 75 grams of melted butter. Press the crumb mixture evenly and firmly across the base and halfway up the sides.
Bake at 180C/140C in fan forced oven for 20 minutes to cook the crumb, then remove from the oven. Cool slightly and use a straight-sided coffee mug to press the hot crumb mix back up the sides of the tin if it has dropped down.
Chocolate ginger snap cookies
300g unsalted butter
200g golden syrup
250g brown sugar
10g ground ginger
1 egg, 60g
350g plain flour
80g cocoa
½ tsp bicarb of soda
1. Melt the butter, then stir in the golden syrup, sugar and ginger. Pour mixture into a bowl, then beat in the egg.
2. Stir in the flour, cocoa and bicarb, then mix to a smooth paste.
3. Scoop heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto a baking tray lined with non-stick paper spaced about five centimetres apart and bake at 160C/140C fan forced for about 18 minutes until crisp at the edges. Leftover dough can be rolled into a log, wrapped in non-stick paper, and frozen to use at another time.
Tip: Freeze the biscuits before crumbing so they grind finely.
Makes 60 cookies, enough for two cookie crusts.